A vaporizer is a device used to extract the active ingredients of plant material, e.g., cannabis, tobacco, or other herbs or blends, for inhalation by a human. Vaporization involves heating a material so that its active compounds boil off into a vapor. As opposed to smoking, i.e., burning, vaporization avoids the production of irritating, toxic, and carcinogenic by-products. In fact, no combustion occurs, so no smoke or taste of smoke is present. Studies show that vapor contains substantially zero particulate matter or tar, and, in comparison to smoking, significantly lower concentrations of noxious gases such as carbon monoxide. It has also been shown that, in comparison to other drug delivery methods, such as ingestion, vaporization has a more rapid onset of pharmacological effect, direct delivery into the bloodstream (via the lungs), and more precise titration such that the desired level is reached and not exceeded, enabling consistent and appropriate dosage.
Prior-art vaporizers use a heating element that adds an unpleasant taste to the air stream flowing through it. In addition, all known vaporizers are made with a heating element inside an air-flow conduit where the heating element rests against a portion of the interior of the conduit, thereby preventing air from flowing around certain portions of the heating element, resulting in non-optimized airflow and/or heat exchange. Furthermore, prior-art vaporizers utilize temperature probes that are installed within the air-flow conduit. These probes are in direct thermal communication with the airflow and are heavily influenced by changes in the temperature of the air flowing by the heating element. The temperature controllers attached to the probes respond to this temperature change, often unnecessarily and too severely, thereby resulting in a sinusoidal pattern in the heating taking place within the heating element, resulting in too high or too low of temperatures and adverse effects to the user's experience.
Therefore, a need exists to overcome the problems with the prior art as discussed above.